Tips on Cooking Chinese Food

Tips on Cooking Chinese Food

It’s a huge challenge for the live-in Indonesian maid or live-in Filipino maid to leave their home country and work for the employer’s family abroad. Living in another country also means getting used to the new environment, new people, and new cooking! Is your Indonesian maid or Filipino maid in the initial process of learning how to cook your favorite stir-fried vegetables? What are the first few things about cooking Chinese food that we need to tell her?

Before bringing out the wok and spatula, Eden Grace Maids Agency would like to share with you first these few simple tips on cooking Chinese food that your Singapore maid needs to know.

Tips on cooking Chinese food:

1. Materials you need
Wok— She may find a wok in her kitchen back home since she’s Asian too!
Woks are better after seasons and it has the capacity to hold veggies safely together during stir-fry and sauté cooking. The Indonesian maid or Filipino maid must put in mind that woks with round bottoms work best with gas stove and the ones with flat bottoms can be used effectively in an electric stove.

Cleaver – Cleaver chops off even the thickest vegetable!
Carefully, the Singapore maid must hold the ingredient like a “cat’s paw” when chopping to protect her fingertips as cleaver knives are sharp and a little bit dangerous.

2. The basic ingredients
Almost every Chinese food recipe has these key flavoring: garlic, ginger, and chili. These don’t only make your Indonesian maid or Filipino maid’s cooking aromatic, these are also healthy flavorings, unlike MSG and others.

Tofu is also one thing that the Indonesian maid or Filipino maid should watch out in some dishes like Laksa, stir-fried recipes, Miso Udon soup and many more.
– Is the tofu falling apart when cooking? Let the Indo maid or Filipino maid use firm tofu in frying so, it can keep its shape before serving.
– How will the tofu absorb the flavor you want it to have? Drain the moisture out of it first before putting it in the pan. That way, it will be like a dry sponge, ready to absorb the flavor of the dish.

Noodles are just as popular as rice in Chinese recipes. Gradually teach your live-in Indonesian maid or live-in Filipino maid the basics in cooking Chinese cuisine like Hokkien Mee and Fried Kueh Teow. Remember, she may not perfectly achieve the ideal taste on the first try but she’ll get there soon.

3. Before cooking
The ingredients’ freshness directly affects the quality of the output dish! If the Singapore maid wants to come up with something tasty and healthy, she must look for the freshest veggies and meat from the market. Fresh is always the best.

Remind the Indonesian maid or Filipino maid to marinate the fresh meat overnight too! Marinating the chicken before cooking gives the dish a different kind of outcome.

Let the Singapore maid wash the veggies thoroughly! You won’t like dirt on your newly cooked vegetables. Above everything, the maid should wash it ahead of time to give the veggies more time to drain water. This way, there’s no extra moisture in the pan while cooking.

4. Seek balance
One of the basic philosophies of cooking Chinese cuisine is that one shouldn’t put too much of something in one cooking. There should be sugar but not too much, and there should be salt but not too much. This healthy practice can make your Singapore maid’s dish outstanding when it comes to taste too.

Including a variety of ingredients such as meat, tofu, sauces, leafy vegetables, etc. in the dish is also evident in most Chinese cuisines! Different colors and textures can be seen/tested in one bite.

Eden Grace Maids Agency aims to bring useful tips in every situation. The agency is our helping hand not only through maid services but also through giving us necessary information that can remedy our household problems.